The great English bluesman John Mayall used that phrase in a song about Jimi Hendrix's death. It comes to mind with the news that the actor Philip Seymour Hoffmann has been found dead with a syringe in his arm, a heroin overdose victim. He was 46.

The first film I saw Hoffmann in was The Talented Mr. Ripley, in which he played a murderous creep. He also struck me as particularly good in Capote, but he kept popping up in many other movies I rented. I always thought the films were better for his presence.

Naturally, the internet is full of judgmental vindictive holier-than-thou blather in response to his death—the sort of stuff that cowards say only from behind user names. However, it all was offset by this wise observation from an anonymous commenter:

"Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them." Ecclesiastes 9:12

The young man whose father was quoted while at the funeral home for his son (who died of a heroin overdose or from shooting laced heroin - no toxicology results yet) was a classmate of our youngest kiddo. I cried so hard when I heard the news, unable to imagine the heartache his family must be enduring. They weren't close, this young man and our son, but they had mutual friends, and they played music together sometimes. So, so sad.

That is such an excellent response to the "No sympathy for cokeheads and addicts" lines you always hear with stuff like this. I felt so sad when I heard. I read that he was supposed to be watching the Super Bowl with his son that night. It's just heartbreaking.

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